UK Master Weaver Collingwood in Garden Valley

 NEIGHBORS WITH NEWS!

 Thanks to Georgianna Goetsch for bringing someone of Collingwood's status and talent to Garden Valley and for sharing this information.

Returning to Garden Valley for his third year, master weaver, Jason Collingwood, is instructing artists in a weaving technique called 3-End Block Weave, a method Collingwood uses almost exclusively. Included will be a Shaft-Switching Seminar. Shaft-Switching is a method designed and perfected by Jason's father, the late Peter Collingwood.

This week, the group is utilizing the Garden Valley School Multi Purpose Room, as the popularity of the workshop - not to mention the reputation of Collingwood - has drawn more interested weavers than in the past. Participants hail from as far as the Oregon coast, Washington, North Dakota, Canada, Coeur d'Alene, Sandpoint and even good ole Garden Valley.



School employees are providing some

fresh, yummy meals for weavers.



The community is invited to observe the weavers at their floor and table looms of different shapes and sizes, as they weave samples of a variety of patterns in block weave, on Saturday, August 6, between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m.

Garden Valley School is located at 1053 Banks Lowman Road, on Hwy. 17, 13 miles east of Banks off of Hwy 55.

3-End Blockweave ~ The workshop involves an exploration of three-end block weaves, the same structure Jason uses to weave all of his rugs:

**Starting with simple two-colour designs and moving on to designing within the blocks and the introduction of a third colour.

**Techniques such as clasped wefts and dovetailing will be looked at, to further increase the design scope of this structure.

**2 / 1 double faced twill will also be covered in this class.

Special emphasis will be placed on Shaft Switching, everyone being able to adapt their looms in class, to try out this exciting technique.

Seminars ~ The design possibilities of shaft switching:

*With the aid of slides/power point presentation, this technique will be fully explained: What led to its development, the most basic forms of shaft switching, the various stages along its 'evolution' , up to the commercially available unit of today.

*Each of these steps will be carefully explained (many with slides of the original plans for the first lever system). Using slides of Jason's work along with that of others, it will be clearly seen just how liberating shaft switching is, design-wise, for the rug weaver.

*A general discussion on what constitutes good design will also be covered.

 Visit Jason Collingwood's site for more information about the master weaver: http://www.rugweaver.co.uk/ ...he has been extremely busy this year and we are very fortunate for his visit to Garden Valley, as many of his venues have been filled across the country and abroad.

Photos by Angel